Job cuts look set to continue

The new year has started on a grim note for employees who breathed a sigh of relief for surviving the year-long round of redundancies, with firms continuing to wield the axe in 2003.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has published its first 'HR Trends and Prospects for 2003', which foresees further job losses this year. This prediction is based on its 2002 redundancy survey, which showed that 45% of firms that carried out redundancies last year planned more in the next 12 m